


End

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2019-09-28 02:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17173694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: The first time David sees Jack cry.





	End

Jack Kelly never cried. He’d learned from a young age to associate tears with blows and anger, and that was a tough thing to unlearn.

David knew. He learned to recognize a certain wide-eyed look, a certain vulnerable and tearless silence that came over Jack on rare occasions, and was almost the same as a sob. He once sat up with Jack for an entire night after hearing that his father had passed away in prison, being shown the man’s final letter begging for forgiveness that Jack had never answered. It had seemed appropriate, somehow, that Jack had met the loss of the person who had taught him to ‘shut the hell up and stop sniveling’ with absolute and complete silence, but David had spent more than an hour holding him anyway, rocking him back and forth. Jack had allowed it. He’d seemed almost boneless, at least until he’d started kissing David. David remembered that night well. They’d been on the roof of his family’s home, and Jack had been quicker than usual, and clumsy, seeming much younger than his nineteen years.

Les being sent away to war had brought a similar reaction in Jack, though much more subdued. David had cried when that had happened. Jack had tried to remain strong for his sake, but David could see how the idea of anything bad happening to Les had broken Jack apart. They were family, after all.

Jack’s own deployment had been met with false calm by everybody involved. His return had been jubilant for Jack, and tearful for David. The aftermath of his return had brought with it nightmares, and a jumpiness that had always been there, but managed to find dozens of new triggers during his time away. Crying, however, had not been a part of it. That was not something that existed in Jack.

David was forty-eight the first time he ever saw Jack truly cry. David was forty-eight and sick . Lung cancer, the doctors had told him. He was strangely unafraid. Knowing that something was wrong and not understanding it… that had scared him. Understanding the problem, and knowing its certain results, however dire they might be, had not. Jack was horrified enough for the two of them. David let Jack hold him then, and as Jack’s tears fell in his hair, and his silence turned into shakes, David didn’t let go.


End file.
